Surgical drapes are known to have a variety of uses during all aspects of surgical operations. It is not uncommon to consume a great number of drapes even for the most elementary of procedures. Efficient and reliable storage, dispensing and deployment of bulk quantities of surgical drapes is most desirous. Heretofore, surgical drapes have been provided as sterile, individually folded and packaged products or as individually folded, non-sterile bulk packaged products.
As surgical drapes have both sterile and non-sterile uses, use of the more convenient but package intensive individually folded and wrapped sterile drapes in non-sterile applications has proven cost prohibitive. The unit costs of individually folded and wrapped drapes are high because of additional and sometimes elaborate packaging that is provided and oftentimes required. This, in combination with the fact that operating room storage space is typically at a premium and room for surgical drapes a low priority, makes bulk packaging of surgical drapes an attractive alternative.
Non-sterile bulk packed surgical drapes have had limited success as their packaging is generally not permitted in the operating room because they do not pass a minimum cleanliness threshold. When the bulk drapes are removed from their packaging or cartons, which can be a chore in and of itself, they are difficult to maintain in an orderly manner, usually becoming an unusable jumble of material. Furthermore, bulk storage exposes the entire supply to grasping hands in the operating room which may inadvertently cross contaminate remaining drapes of the bulk supply and thereby render them unusable.
It is thus desirous and advantageous to provide a convenient way to store a greater density of surgical drapes and deliver individual drapes from a supply of surgical drapes in a neat, quick, efficient and reliable manner.